Stands for supporting both natural Christmas trees and artificial Christmas trees are known. In most known stands, the stands include means adapted to loosely receive a base portion of the tree pole or trunk. In order to then stably support the Christmas tree, the stands includes means for fixedly securing the tree pole to the stand. Such means often comprise one or more manually operated screws or the like provided at or adjacent to the means for receiving the lower portion of the tree pole where the screws must be driven into the material of the tree pole to fix it to the stand.
There are a number of disadvantages with known tree stands. One such problem is that the stands are often not easily collapsible for transport or storage purposes. Or, where they are collapsible, it often requires that they are disassembled into multiple separate parts for storage with the danger that one or more of such parts becomes mislaid. Another problem is that the fixture means such as screws for fixedly securing the tree pole to the stand may damage the material of the pole. This is not an issue in the case of cut natural Christmas trees which are normally disposed of after use, but it can become a problem with artificial trees which may be used time and time again.